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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Pasta Salad Dressing

I made a bunch of quinoa pasta and some Bacon-ish Bits this weekend, and my wonderful wife cut up carrots, zucchini, and celery. The pasta got a coating of pesto to help it not clump together (which it still does but not quite as badly) before going into the fridge.

Throwing together all of these great ingredients called out for a creamier topping to make it a more cohesive pasta salad. It helps that our two avocados were showing signs of "eat me now!"

Cut and peel the avocados, put those in the bowl. Add pesto and lemon cube. Stir until creamy and lemon cube has melted. You may want to add the pesto in stages to achieve the desired consistency. Salt as needed, or add whatever spices take your fancy.

The amount of pesto will change both the texture and the taste. This can also be used as a salad dressing with you controlling the consistency.

If you don't have a dairy-free pesto available, you can make your own, or add what's missing to the above individually.

So, say you decide you want a spinach pesto to go with your avocado for a pasta salad dressing. I recommend using a blender and putting in:

Avocado, spinach, onion, garlic, pepper, pine nuts or walnuts (optional), lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. The other main ingredient is olive oil. Since the avocado could take the place of an oil, you can add olive oil as needed for texture. Optionally or in addition to, you can add vinegar for some tang in your dressing. (Future recipe posted here? Quite possibly)